Design of landfills

An engineered landfill essentially consists of a barrier layer or liner which is a low permeable zone to
prevent the leaching of waste from the landfill. Above the liner, a drainage layer is placed which
collects the leachate from the waste for treatment. Such a layer also minimizes the head causing
flow in liner due to the timely removal of leachate from the landfill. The third important layer is the
cover to the landfill, which is a multi-layered system to cut off the harmful effect of waste on the
atmosphere. The various aspects required for planning and design of landfill are as follows:

1. Waste Characterization

2. Assessment of leachate and gas generation

3. Landfill elements to be provided

4. Liner and cover materials

5. Landfill design approach

3.4.1 Waste Characterization:

Waste characterization is important to understand the following:

1. Physical and chemical tests are preformed to evaluate whether waste is hazardous or non-
hazardous.

2. Whether waste can be landfilled directly or necessitate processing (reduction, recycling etc.)
before disposal.

3. Approximate rate of waste volume generated.

4. Assessment of leachate quantity.

5. Assessment of leachate quality for judging liner compatibility, treatment plant design,
ground water monitoring program design.

6. Safety precautions to be followed during landfill operations.

7. Identify waste reduction alternatives.

3.4.2 Assessment of leachate and gas generation

Leachates are produced when water or other liquids percolates and interacts with waste. The
information on quality and quantity of leachate and gas generated during active life and after
closure are important for realistic and efficient design of a landfill. Leachate contains a lot of
dissolved and suspended materials. Gases produced include CH4, CO2, NH3 and H2S due to
anaerobic decomposition of waste. These gases either escape to atmosphere or dissolve in water
leading to further reactions. Contaminated liquids of high concentration are formed due to chemical
reaction taking place within the waste. The percolating water increases the quantity of leachate but
would help to dilute the concentration.

3.4.3 Engineered containment landfills

The engineered landfill includes designed man made barrier layers for minimizing the migration
of harmful contaminants from the place of disposal to the groundwater. The provisions in
engineered landfill depends upon the type of waste is receives. For example, comparison of a typical
MSW landfill and hazardous landfill is shown in Fig. 3.6.

3.4.3.1 Compacted liner

Soil used for compacted liners include natural clays, glacial till, residual soil, shale, mud,
bentonite etc. Natural or locally available soils with high clay content are preferred to commercial
soil like bentonite due to cost effectiveness. In the absence of suitable natural soil, swelling clays like
bentonite is mixed with locally available soil, fly ash, sand etc. to achieve the desired performance of
liners. In recent years, geosynthetic materials have been used along with clays to enhance the
performance of liners due to its low permeability. A typical eg; is geosynthetic clay liner popularly
known as GCL. These are factory manufactured hydraulic and gas barriers typically consisting of
bentonite clay or other low permeability clay materials sandwiched between synthetic materials
such as geomembranes or geotextiles or both, which are held together by needling or chemical
adhesives. One of the universally accepted criteria to be satisfied by compacted liner is that the
permeability (k) should be 10-9 m/sec

Factors influencing leachate quality

a) Refuse composition
b) Elapsed time: Leachate quality (concentration) increases and reaches peak during the working
period of landfill and then start decreasing with time as shown in Fig. 3.5. All the contaminants
present in the leachate do not exhibit peak at the same time and may not be of same shape.

Fig. 3.5 Variation of leachate quality (concentration) with elapsed time

c) Temperature: Temperature affects bacterial growth and chemical reactions, there by affecting
leachate quality.
d) Available moisture influences biodegradable and subsequent leaching of wastes.
e) Available oxygen influences leachate quality due to the fact that chemicals released due to
aerobic decomposition is different from anaerobic decomposition. Anaerobic condition would arise
due to landfill cover or covering due to fresh waste.
Factors influencing leachate quantity
a) Amount of precipitation received.
b) Ground water interaction when the landfill base is below groundwater table.
c) Moisture content of waste increases biodegradation and increases leachate production. Such a
scenario is mostly applicable in the case of municipal solid waste and due to sludge that are
disposed.
d) Final cover reduces leachate quantity due to low percolation through compacted covers. Also
vegetation in the top soil of final cover reduces infiltration by increased evapotranspiration.
Estimation of leachate quantity
The quantity of leachate is directly dependent on precipitation received. Pre-closure and post-
closure leachate generation from a landfill vary significantly. Pre-closure leachate generation rate is
required for designing leachate collection pipes in the landfill, fixing the size of leachate collection
tank and treatment plant. Post-closure leachate generation rate is required to plan the management
of leachate and cost incurred for it. Leachate quantity considerably reduces after closure and
construction of covers.

Leachate volume (Lv) is given by Eq. 3.1.

L v = P + S - E - AW 3.1

Where P is the precipitation volume, S is the volume of pore liquid squeezed from the waste, E is the
volume lost by evaporation and AW is the volume of liquid lost through absorption in waste.

Pore squeeze leachate volume (S)

When sludge in disposed, liquid within the pores gets squeezed due to self- weight of sludge and
weight of waste dump and cover soil. Such an action is similar to the consolidation process occurring
in a saturated soil. Primary consolidation of waste accounts for the majority of pore squeeze
leachate. The primary consolidation properties of sludge are used to predict leachate generation
rate.
Loss due to evaporation depends on ambient temperature, wind velocity difference in vapour
pressure etc. Leachate absorbed in waste (AW) is depended on field capacity (FC) of waste. FC is the
maximum moisture content that waste can retain against gravitational force without producing
down ward flow. When the moisture content is within FC, the waste has the capacity to retain water
without causing downward flow.

Post closure leachate generation rate

Only water that can infiltrate through the final cover of the landfill percolates through the waste and
generates post closure leachate. Water balance method expressed by Eq. 3.2 is a popular method
for estimating post closure leachate generation.

L'V = P - ET - R - S 3.2

Where L'V is the volume of post closure leachate, P is the volume of precipitation, ET is the volume
lost though evapotranspiration, R is the volume of run off and S is the volume of moisture stored in
soil and waste. Potential ET is obtained based on appropriate empirical equation.
R = Cr I A 3.3

Where Cr is the run off coefficient, I is the rainfall intensity and A is the area of landfill surface.
Soil moisture storage (S): A portion of infiltrating water is stored by soil and only a part of this is used
for vegetation. Soil moisture storage capacity is the difference between field capacity and wilting
point. Wilting point is the moisture content at which plants cannot draw moisture and starts wilting.
Normally, moisture content corresponding to 1500 kPa matric suction is taken as wilting point.
Water balance method if not done properly results in large errors especially when used for long term
leachate generations rate. The disadvantages of water balance method are: (i) it does not account
permeability of cover layer (ii) evapotranspiration is sometimes wrongly calculated due to over
prediction of root length in vegetation layer. In reality root would not have penetrated entire
thickness of vegetation layer.

Gas generation rate

Gas generation rate is mostly valid for municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill where organic matter
decomposition results in the production of gases. Gas production in MSW landfill occurs due to
anaerobic degradation resulting from hydrolysis and fermentation (attributed to bacterial activities),
acetogenesis and dehydrogenation, and methanogenesis. Hydrogen gas is produced due to the
oxidation of soluble products to organic acids. Some of the other gases produced from MSW are
methane, carbondioxide, hydrogen sulphide and nitrogen. Gas production reaches a stable rate and
then decreases as biological activity in MSW landfill start decreasing. The assessment of time
dependent percentage production of methane from a MSW landfill is important for recovering
methane as an energy source, and there by reducing greenhouse gas effect.